April 1, 2002

UAB head football coach Watson Brown said that it was obvious his UAB football team had taken a week off for spring break the way Monday's practice went.

"Rusty was not the word for the way things were out there today," Brown said. "I don't know what you would call it. It was pretty bad out there. We proved that you can't take a week off in the middle of practice. "

The Blazers worked in shorts on the first day back, and Brown said there were a few good things out there. "The effort was good and they were excited to be back on the field. Also the week off enabled us to get some of our injured back, which was good. We need the guys back because we are doing a lot of hitting this spring and will get back to hitting tomorrow."

Some of the injured that returned were defensive tackle Randal Gibson and linrbacker Darius Taylor. Running back Theron Dudley bruised his ribs in the scrimmage before spring break , but was able to practice Monday. "We would have missed Theron for several days if we did not have the break, but luckily he did not miss any time," Brown said.

UAB will practice Tuesday and Thursday and scrimmage Saturday at noon.